My New Printer
I would do something more productive with today, but I got a new printer last night and it’s REALLY EXCITING.
I know printers normally aren’t exciting, and they really shouldn’t be – as long as they make what’s on your computer onto a piece of paper, it’s all good. But this is one of those sneaky all-in-one thingerdoos, which I’m wary of because “all-in-one” usually means “suck-at-everything”. And anyway, I have a scanner, rarely need to make copies, and have never sent a fax in my entire (non-professional) life. But hey, it was $70 off. I love a deal.
I needed to print off a resume for an info session at an employment centre that my now-former HR manager told me will help me get funding for training while I’m on EI. This is where my mission began. The trusty old Canon Pixma has been low on ink for about six months, and it finally proved it by spitting out my resume in a jittery gradient that completely fades out my Education section. Maybe that’s not a bad thing. It’s on the bottom of the page for a reason.
I checked prices for ink, and found a WiFi printer that was cheaper than the Canon cartridges I needed. The price was tempting, but the concept of being able to print directly from my computer was delicious. My printer is connected to Scott’s computer, which is running Vista and therefore doesn’t like to share anything. Every time I need to print from my Mac, I’ve been emailing it to myself, opening Gmail on Scott’s computer and printing from there. I think the dinosaurs had to do this too, and that’s why they were so grumpy all the time.
The first WiFi I saw was on sale for about $20 off, but a few online reviews convinced me that a higher model would be worth springing for, and that’s when I found the Lexmark X7675 Pro. A few of the negative reviews I read were a bit scary, not counting those written by people who couldn’t figure out the “softwear” or couldn’t get their wireless networks going. Those who don’t know what they’re doing are most likely to blame the perfectly good object that they have no hope of understanding, and misplaced anger is probably the strongest motivator for posting angry reviews on the internet. Anyway, I downloaded the user guide, gave it a good scan, and decided I could handle any problems this little monster could toss my way.
I was right! Setup was a breeze. Even the cranky Vista box connects to it like they’re twin frickin’ brothers. That computer is the only device that connects to the wireless router via ethernet, and since it’s usually really cranky about cooperating with me at all (I think it can smell the Apple on me), I was shocked that it detected the new printer the second it connected to our network.
This is the first peripheral I’ve had that’s labeled as “Professional”. Everything else I own is pretty amateur. So far, I’ve noticed two benefits of going pro – the USB cable, unnecessary beyond initial setup as it is, is included (quelle surprise!), and all the documentation is tucked into a snazzy folder. In my experience, snazzy folders usually equate to “Please Buy Me!”, so it was weird for me, because I already had.
So far, I’m really impressed with this printer/scanner/whatever else it can do-er. The print quality looks fine so far. I’m not the most exacting judge of print quality, but I definitely know ugly when I see it, and I haven’t seen it yet in this case. I really like that I can hit up an internal admin page and fiddle with its settings and check the ink status. I’ve named it SIR-PRINTSALOT until I can think of something more clever.
One of the complaints I’ve read is that it can’t scan on a wireless connection. This is wrong! You just have to initiate it from the printer itself. The LCD display gives you all available options, and from there you choose which computer to scan to, which application it should use, and some basic options. You can also choose to preview the image on the little wee screen, which is adorable and good for reference but not entirely useful for finer details. It’s a similar feel to reviewing photos on a digital camera display. At that point, you get to skip merrily to your selected computer, where the process is completed. I’ve also had fun and success scanning directly to an SD card.
Maybe these options are common and to be expected of a professional like SIR-PRINTSALOT. This wireless all-in-one world is very new to me. I do know that I’m enjoying the novelty of it all, and very satisfied with my purchase.
